


Faith

by AugustStories



Series: Personal Writing Challenge October 2019 [14]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Archangel Gabriel (Supernatural), Episode: s13e13 Devil's Bargain, Gabriel Has Issues, Giving Up, Holding On, Hurt Gabriel (Supernatural), Mentions of other characters - Freeform, Post-Episode: s13e13 Devil's Bargain, Protective Sam Winchester, Trust, faith - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-22 16:00:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21079484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AugustStories/pseuds/AugustStories
Summary: He had given up Faith a long time ago.If God couldn't even come to the desperate call of the youngest of his first sons then he truly didn't care.Fortunately for him, someone else did care.





	Faith

**Author's Note:**

> To support my friend with her inktober challenge, I made myself a writing challenge so she wouldn't be handling prompt works on a daily basis alone. I will be posting all works that aren't based on original writing where you guys wouldn't understand the context, this is day 17.

The footsteps were moving away.

He didn't fool himself that the danger level was getting lowered by it, or that it would bring comfort for him in any way. He had long since given up on that thought, that feeling, he didn't even know anymore how a world felt like that wasn't consisting of only pain and torture. He couldn't even tell time anymore, let alone how much time had passed since Loki's sons had caught him offguard.

Offguard in grief because his big brothers had just taken a nose dive into the Cage. Together.

The Apocalypse had just been stopped by throwing the players into a box they couldn't break out of, the one thing able to contain them in this world. The Winchesters had done it, and after overhearing some whispered conversation between Asmodeus and Abadon when she had still been downside, he knew that the brothers had not only done it but lived to tell the tale.

In another life, Gabriel might have just been curious enough to give up his dead status and go and hear the story from them himelf.

In another life.

He would never get to hear the story now.

He would never get to see Earth again, let alone Heaven, he was doomed to die in Hell.

\--

The torture that Asmodeus inflicted on him and the draining of his Grace wasn't even the worst part of the whole ordeal.

It was loneliness.

Gabriel may have once skipped out of Heaven, faked his death on multiple occasions and given himself a face- and power-transplant but he had never been alone.

Now, he was alone so often that it scared him more than any pain ever could, because his loneliness kept his little remains of Grace from recharging in its despair and instead of recovering enough to really power him up again, his Grace sought for something Gabriel could never get in this place.

It searched for protection.

It searched for something more powerful to seek help from.

It searched for Light in Hell.

And unfortunately for Gabriel and his never depleting wish to regain even a tenth of his strength, there was Light in Hell.

There were Archangels in Hell, other Archangels. Archangels who had always been stronger than him, filled with more light, so much brighter than the youngest of four.

His big brothers in the Cage.

And maybe millenia had passed since he had last seen Michael or stood on one side with Lucifer but his Grace still clawed at the impenetrable walls of the Cage to get to the big brothers who would protect him.

Because Gabriel's Faith in his father's love for him had died for good the minute he had been caged into Hell and used like a cow. Why keep Faith in a man who let three of his first sons rot away in Hell.

Raphael must have arguably been the true favourite after all, like Father, like Son, both of them had never cared for Family.

Gabriel was alone.

And he would die alone, too.

\--

He couldn't have expected that he would be saved by the same guy who had pushed his so much more powerful brothers to their doom.

Saved by the man he had tried to turn into a prom dress.

Saved by the man he had tortured by killing his brother over a hundred times.

Saved by Sam Winchester.

\--

It was a day like no other.

Not that there were any concepts like day and night in Hell, let alone that Gabriel had any idea over how time passed anymore. He truthfully only knew that he was on another recharging cycle, it would maybe be another three to four Hell days until Asmodeus returned for him. Which meant Gabriel could ignore the world around him, close his eyes and focus on keeping his Grace from reaching for the Light in the Cage again.

It had dimmed since Lucifer had vanished, he didn't understand how exactly, rumor around Hell or at least heard by him from passing by demons was that the Winchesters had broken Lucifer out of the Cage. Which... was not making any kind of sense, why break him out when they had fought so hard to put him back there.

He didn't move when he heard footsteps rushing into Asmodeus' little throne room, sometimes the lower demons came to watch him, poke at him even, he had long since stopped caring. Curled up on the ground in the farthest corner of his cage, Gabriel kept himself well away from the outer walls, he wasn't in the mood for poking fingers.

His attention was only drawn when whoever had come around didn't chuckle in devious glee but cursed up a storm.

Chains rattled, more curses were spit out but he was too far gone into himself to react, it took so much concentration to contain his Grace, to keep it from reaching back for the Cage, he wanted to feel stronger again so badly. He wanted so desperately to regain something of himself, something of who he had been, he knew his time was drawing close to the end, he didn't want to die a shadow of himself.

Hands on his ankles lurched him quite violently out of his retreat though.

Not because he was touched.

That happened way too often now.

No, the touch was gentle.

"Gabriel? Gabriel, can you hear me?" He was moved slowly, turned around to very gently when those warm hands moved to his shoulder and knees. Gabriel still kept his eyes closed though. "Hey, Gabe, it's Sam. Sam Winchester." It wouldn't be, this would only be someone playing a stupid fucking joke on him to make the following torture hurt even more, or Gabriel had finally began to loose it despite him trying everything in his little power to not reach that point.

"Gabriel, please talk to..." and that was about the time that Sam or whoever pretending to be Sam noticed the stitches that kept Gabriel from being able to fulfill that wish. And that was weird because he was sure that every fucking demon in Hell had long since known that Asmodeus did not only have an Archangel pet but also one that couldn't scream when you kicked it. More curses followed and they sounded almost too real and angry to be played, careful fingers touched the edges of his abused lips. "Gabe, please, please, look at me. I'm gonna get you out of here."

The temptation to look was too much.

If he died soon, he would at least have the image of a familiar face to hold onto when the blinding allcompassing pain ultimately returned to him.

So he opened his eyes.

And inside of him his Grace forgot all about the Cage, forgot all about the big brother who had never known Gabriel had even been so close and in peril, it forgot everything because the Light in front of him was so bright.

It was Sam.

It was Sam Winchester.

No demon was strong enough to fake a soul like that.

"Hey," Sam was saying softly, his big paws coming up to frame Gabriel's face, "we're gonna get you out of here, we'll get you to safety. Ketch came to us, he told us Asmodeus had you. Dean and Cas, they are staging a distraction with some help. I just need to figure out how to get you out now." Sam was muttering the last to himself more or less, and Gabriel was too fixed to latch onto the Light in him anyway, every piece of his Grace was reaching for that warmth.

Sam wasn't an Archangel but he had been made to hold one, his soul was so full of light and warmth and power.

"Come on, let's get you out of this and up." Sam was so careful, handling Gabriel like he might fall apart in his hands any second, which wasn't too unlikely a scenario. "Rowena, I got him," Sam called out when he had Gabriel standing outside the cage, swaying on his feet but held up by strong arms. "Few more minutes, then we'll be out of here, promise. We got a safe place now, kind of Winchester HQ, you're gonna like it. We'll get those stitches removed as soon as possible, I swear. Rowena, are you ready yet?"

"Gimme a second!" A voice yelled from the corridor, unseen but maybe Gabriel was fooling himself but it seemed like he could feel magic. It didn't matter though, none of it did, maybe this was a hallucination, maybe this was a nightmare, maybe he had in fact lose his marbles for good now, but he didn't care.

Not as long as this bright warmth was there to find comfort in.

Not as long as he felt even a little bit like an angel again.

He had lost Faith in his own father, but maybe, just maybe, he could get enough of himself together to have some Faith in Sam Winchester.


End file.
